Female Psychopathic Traits in Forensic and School Context: Comparing the Antisocial Process Screening Device Self-Report and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short

The association between psychopathic traits and antisociality among females is an important and understudied area of research. Drawing on 377 female adolescents (103 selected from forensic settings and 274 selected from school settings) from Portugal, the current study examined the psychometric properties of the Antisocial Process Screening Device Self-Report (APSD-SR) and Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory - Short version (YPI-S) in female youth populations. When comparing these two measures the YPI-S revealed clearer results in terms of its three-factor structure and internal consistency, and stronger convergent validity coefficients. The APSD-SR revealed problems in terms of its factor structure and internal consistency of its Callous-Unemotional (CU) and Impulsivity dimensions. Convergent validity was demonstrated among these measures and with measures of other facets of the psychopathy construct (CU traits, narcissism) and related constructs (reactive and proactive aggression), and discriminant validity was found with a measure of basic empathy. Expected significant associations were found in terms of criterion-related validity with several indicators of delinquent careers including age of criminal onset, Conduct Disorder (CD), crime seriousness, violent crimes, alcohol use, and drug use.